Greens, Eggs & Jam 2009

A HUGE Thank You to everyone who attended, cooked, invited friends, helped out, and made Sunday's Greens, Eggs & Jam Garden Brunch fundraising event a delicious success!!

Over 65 people were in attendance, plus many children, and we raised over $10,400 in gifts and pledges. This is about a 30% increase in attendance from last year.

This inspiring support from our community is what enables us to keep our day-to-day work going strong for the over 700 students who count on us! Plus, we unveiled our new plans for the coming year, in which Urban Sprouts will step up as leaders in the healthy food movement by sharing our methods, our research results, and our sustainable leadership style with more schools and educators all over California and the West!

On Sunday we gathered at Ida B. Wells High School and fun was had by all. For the full photo spread, CLICK HERE. Our guests started by touring the Wells school garden, and then joined us inside to taste the harvest.

Our friends from Nopa Restaurant (below, setting up) prepared the delicious frittata pictured at top left, made with produce from our school gardens (including purple potatoes, fava beans, collard greens, kale, rosemary and sage). Nopa's biscuits and gravy were also a huge hit. (I can't wait to try out their new restaurant, Nopalito!)
Student chefs from Martin Luther King Middle School and International Studies Academy also prepared dishes, including vegetable spring rolls and pesto pasta with fava beans. Yum! Mario (at right, below) also inspired our guests with a speech about his and his classmates' experiences in the MLK school garden.

The festive ambiance was greatly enhanced by our neighborhood bluegrass musicians, led by friend of Urban Sprouts Jordan Klein on banjo.
Decorations came from our own school gardens, including flowers like these!We couldn't have pulled this off without all the wonderful help from Ida B. Wells' staff and students, Urban Sprouts' staff, Advisory Board, and volunteers, and a Saturday volunteer group from USF. Thank you!

If you didn't make it to this year's brunch, we hope to see you next time!

And don't forget, our MONTHLY GARDEN TOURS will be starting up again in May, and it's never too late to make your spring contribution to our efforts. To donate today, CLICK HERE!